erinkennedy's posterous

Because the new media is about to become old

Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite...Facebook Lite

In the beginning, I used Facebook to keep in contact with my family and few friends.  The I added some friends of friends, some clients(hairdressing...thought I should make that clear) and became a fan of some of my favorite things and places.  Then I became overwhelmed.  About four weeks ago, I turned off all my email notifications and quit logging in to my Facebook account.  I was sick of seeing who took what stupid survey and was tired of the constant steam of useless information I was having to sort through to get to the information I actually wanted.

Amid my angry revolt of Facebook, I came across an article announcing the launch of  a new Facebook, perfect for those who are frustrated by what Facebook has evolved into.  It's Facebook Lite, a completely stripped down version of Facebook.  There is a condensed version of streaming updates and four main categories on the left hand side:  Friends, Wall, Info and Photos & Videos.  Plus I don't have to deal with the massive amounts of advertising thrown at me via the side bar. 

Facebook Lite is also particularly good for those of you who have slower Internet connections.  There is not a lot going on your page, like the traditional Facebook or even Myspace.  It is very similar to the Facebook you get pre-programmed on your mobile phones.  To me, it looks a lot like Twitter.  Facebook Lite is still a work in progress and hasn't gone completely live yet, but hopes to become less filling very soon.

Even online, display advertising shows promise

The big debate going on right now is whether or not newspapers and magazines will survive the shift into the digital world.  One reason is because advertisers are more releuctant to advertise online, because they are not sure of the impact they are actually making.  With so much information via the web, advertisers who traditionally use print medium are worried with so much noise out there will their ad even been seen. 

As a small business owner, I can tell you that I have often excused myself from online advertising for fear that my ad would go not even be noticed.  Even when my newspaper offered to let me advertise online for half the normal cost if I bought a print ad as well, I still turned them down.  However, a recent article published by Advertising Age shows that if I get over my fears, my display ad just might be working.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- As retailers get ready for the holiday season, their first instinct might be to throw as much money as they can afford into search. But recent traffic trends may point them otherwise.

Less than 10% of online retailers' web traffic, on average, comes from search engines, according to an analysis by Nielsen Co.'s Online division.
Nielsen found the majority of retailers' web traffic (61%, on average) comes from people going directly to a retail site -- consumers typing, say, Amazon.com into a browser address bar.

This means that consumers are more likely to type the direct name of my business rather then typing the words "Wizzard of Oz Fabric" into the search engine.  This is good news for small businesses who don't generate enough searches to move them up higher in the search query.

 

"When you take a step back and look at that together -- the fact that such a high percentage of people go directly to retail sites and even those that search generally have a pretty clear intent as to which website they'd like to go to -- it makes a compelling argument that brand and past experiences [with a marketer] matter an awful lot and will be far more significant determinants of success than any customer acquisition strategy that they're going to engage in," he said.
The findings, Mr. Cassar continued, "make an important case for the continued relevancy of display advertising. While search gets a lot of credit because it's quantifiable, there's a reason people are typing things like Expedia into the Google search engine."

While this article makes a good case for display advertising both on and offline, one should never forget the power of excellent customer service and word of mouth.  Because even if a customer can avoid shopping instore and just go online because of bad service, they may ultimately decide to avoid your organziation all together.

 

To read the whole artice click here.

What happened to source verification and credibility?

After reading The Elements of Journalism, I have come to an understanding that the field of journalism should operate on a basic set of standards....now whether they actually do that is a different story.

On Monday morning (11/02/09) an article appeared in The Hutchinson News with the headline "Woman found dead in Lyons."  You can read the article here.  What I am troubled with in this article is that the police declined to release the name of the victim.  Perhaps, they were waiting for all family to be notified or perhaps they were just waiting on postive identification.  Either way, they weren't releasing it.  However, further down in the story two neighbors identified the victim as Jeannie Jacobson.  Now I know Lyons, is a small town, but unless they were actually inside that house standing over that body, can they absolutely be positive who the victim is?  What makes these two neighbors credible?  Did they live next door or down the street?  I live in a small town and I call the lady who lives two blocks away my neighbor.

On Monday I also happened to be doing the hair of one of my regular clients...who just happens to also be from Lyons.  She was telling me all about it, who she was and how she died.  She told me the victim was strangled to death.  That's odd, the police said Tuesday the victim was stabbed to death...but a neighbor told me she was strangled.  Yes, the neighbors did correctly identify the victim, but my point is just because two random neighbors identified the body, doesn't mean the reporter should have taken their word for it.  What if that victim had allowed someone to stay at her house that night?  It is better to get information from credible sources then to have to correct it later.  

Can you milk a hamster?

I throw my hands up.  I will never be able to sort out all the new technologies that have developed and that continue to be develop. And if keeping my computer technologies straight wasn't hard enough, I know have to throw mobile technology in the mix.

I saw an ad on television for this thing call KGB.  KGB stands for Knowledge Generation Bureau.  This mobile service is marketed as an independent provider of directory service and information.  You can text any question to 542542 and receive a response back.  Standard text messaging rates do apply and each answer costs you 99 cents.

I was surprised to learn that this company was started in 1992...but when I continued to read on I learned they just launched in 2009 in the United States.  Whew...maybe I am not as far behind as I thought.

You can text anything to this company, but the responders are only allowed 160 characters, so if your lost and need directions you better hope you only made one wrong turn or your answers could get expensive.  You can ask them what the meaning of life is, why the sky is blue or who won last night's game?  KGB's website states that can you milk a hamster is one of the most popular questions.

Maybe this would be useful in you were in a bar in a heated debate and you needed to prove a point right now.  However, so many people now days have smart phones, they can log onto the Internet themselves, without having to pay the extra 99 cents.  I'm not sure on the quality of answers since I have never used the service, but how much quality can you really get with 160 characters and 99 cents?

If you want to try it all you have to do is send a question to 542542.  Or you can visit www.kgb.com 

I am starting to miss my Zach Morris cell phone.  I wonder if they still make those?  I bet KGB could tell me.

How much are you willing to pay?

We have all heard, that the journalism industry is suffering.  According to the 2008 and 2009 Pew Reports, there have been steady declines in circulation and revenue over the past few years.  The first culprit is the economic downturn.  Many newspapers receive 90% of their revenue from print ads.  The recession has forced advertisers to slash their budgets which means newspapers are not receiving the amount of revenue they have grown acustomed to.  This has forced newspapers to produce smaller papers, leave out special sections, cut staff and even cease production all together.  But, the recession won't last forever.  Soon we will be in recovery and slowly advertisers will gain back their marketing budgets.  They may never advertise as much as they use to, but they won't cease their efforts.

I think the biggest cause of circulation decline is technology.  Why pay when you can get your news for free?  I am a firm believer in quality not quanity.  After all, I do pay $3.93 for my skinny vanilla latte every morning.  And, I know some of you will say that is ridiculous (my dad calls me a yuppy) but I have tried a McCafe and frankly those taste like someone dumped a container of Coffemate into a badly brewed cup of coffee.  

So, I must ask how much are you willing to pay to receive quality news?  Are there yuppy news readers out there?  According to an AP article the NY Time has increased the cost of their weekday and weekend circualtion  earlier this year, but isn't ruling out another increase.  So far, this has proved to be somewhat succesful.  However, when newspapers increase the cost of their dailies to offset the loss of ad revenue they also risk the loss of even more circulation particularly because these same newspapers give away their stories on the Internet.  Advertisers are also still not fully aware of the full effectiveness of online advertising.  However, some newspapers are okay with the drop in ciruclation as long as they keep the readers who are most likely to be affected by the coveted advertising.  This usually means no third-party or discounted advertising in the higher priced papers.

For me, the Internet has to much information for me to sort through.  I don't want to spend my morning sorting through what is fact and what is fiction.  I want to know that I am reading the truth.  Only the future can tell whether I will pay a higher price for my actual paper copy or begin to pay for my online edition that I can read on my Blackberry or Kindle. 

The darker side of technology

There was a brief article on yahoo.com talking about the the loss of information for sidekick cell phone users: 

Owners of Sidekick phones, made by a Microsoft subsidiary and sold by T-Mobile USA, may have lost all the personal data they stored on the phone, including contact numbers.

The companies say the data is "almost certainly" gone after a failure of servers operated by Microsoft wiped out the data. The companies said they hoped to update customers on recovery efforts Monday.

The phones have been troubled by data outages for more than a week. Some users attempted to restart their phones by removing the battery, which erases data on the device. Normally, the data is then restored from servers, but with the server data gone, the device is left empty.
Because of that, customers are being advised not to let the battery completely run down either.  This is a nice reminder of what happens when we surrender completely to technology.  If I was a sidekick user, I would be really hoping I had my numbers written down (you know...with pen and paper) in an address book (yes, they still make these) somewhere.  My cell phone doesn't work half the time.  It shuts off randomly, the battery life is horrible and sometimes I receive text messages in random languages.  Yet, I had no qualms about canceling my home phone service and just using my cell.  Gosh, I hope I don't ever have an emergency and a dead battery at the same time.  But, it is not just cell phones that fail.  Computers don't work properly all the time.  A few days ago, I wanted to read the paper (yes, I cancelled that physical service as well) and the website was under maintanence.  Having my daily routine and data all transfered to a digital workspace is beginning to make me a bit uneasy.  Maybe we should look at technology more like we look at humans...making mistakes all the time.   

Another one bites the dust

The magazine industry is faced with yet another closure.  Gourmet Magazine has been in existence for the past 68 years, but will cease publication after the November issue.  According to an article  on Time .com the closure was announced in a memo from Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend. The company also folded Elegant Bride and Modern Bride into Brides magazine.  The parenting magazine Cookie also announced that it would be closing.  The magazine cited hard economic times and lack of advertising as reasons for the closure, but I don't think the recession is the only cause here.  I think specialty magazines are facing even tougher competition than just money woes.  Websites provide more interactive features than do magazines.  Instead of cutting out Gourmet's annual Thanksgiving recipe, you can watch thousands of different recipes online.  Plus many of the Websites are free.  Magazines need to find a way to co-exist with the web otherwise they will find themselves permanently retired.  Some magazines advertise web only articles  and features in their printed edition.  Maybe they will find themselves offering the whole magazine online in the future.  I wonder if doctors and dentists will start providing computers in their waiting rooms?

A globalized education

Globalization has forced us to not only re-evaluate current trends in technology and jobs, but we must also take a second look at how we are educating those entering the professional world.  Is is possible to anticipate future growth of certain professions?  Even if we can't figure out which wave our job is going to ride next, not investing in education will most certainly leave us behind the globalization trends.

We can drive hybrid cars, why not be hybrid-educated.  The Elliott School of Communication has partially done this.  The integrated marketing communications emphasis attempts to combine journalistic and presentation skills with marketing and business to give students a broader area of expertise and skill set.  But, in order to become hybrid educated we need to span an even broader spectrum of curriculums.  It should not be thought of as a marketing degree from the business school versus a marketing degree from the communication department.     

When I worked in marketing there was a definite difference between the creative people and the technological people.  We creative people lovingly referred to them as the computer geeks.  We would come up with the ideas and then ask them to execute them because we had no idea how all that stuff really worked.  Sure, we could operate a computer, but the guys behind the scenes were the ones with the technical knowledge.  Many organizations today still operate like this; having distinct departments responsible for certain skills.  The problem with this is that the function of the business environment is shifting.  Marketing and advertising is moving away from something to be looked at and moving towards something to be used.  The best way to design these new advertisements is not by using an art director and a computer technical specialist, but by being a computer specialist who is also a creative director or vice versa.  

We need to offer new classes and emphasis areas to build these new hybrid employees.  Digital and mobile literacy are becoming key ingredients for all professions.  More and more careers are being exposed to digitization and globalization and this is happening at a rate faster than anyone had anticipated.  Maybe it is time to rewrite general education requirements to better prepare students for the world of globalization.  Being versatile and thinking critically is what will keep you competitive.

 

 

Using technology to promote organizational culture.

Last weekend, I was driving down the highway and a rock flew up and hit my window.  So I called my insurance company and they arranged to have Safelite Auto Glass come to my home via their mobile unit to fix my windshield.  I didn't think anything else about it.  The company cam recommended through my insurance. What surprised me however, was the email I received Monday morning prior to my appointment.  It was a "technician profile" sent to me complete with a photograph of who I should be expecting to arrive at my house.  The beginning of the email began like this... (I removed his name and photo, for his privacy)

XXX a mobile technician with our company, will be arriving at your requested location to meet your auto glass needs. XXX has successfully completed our extensive certification program and has passed all given motor vehicle, drug and background screenings. You can trust XXX to install your auto glass in a courteous and professional manner.
Since 1947, our companies have repaired and installed more auto glass than any other companies in the United States. Our more than 7,500 associates specialize in just auto glass. And, as the only auto glass companies that operate in all 50 states, only we can offer a national lifetime warranty to give you and your family peace of mind wherever your travels take you.
If you have questions about your appointment, or if you need to make a change, please call 800-800-2727, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We look forward to serving you.

The email also goes on to promote the company's organizational culture.  This company has grasped the fact that technology is embedded in every part of our lives and those who adapt to it the fastest are the ones who will succeed.  I have never gotten anything like this before from any kind of company, wether the were providing me a service or not.  Kudos to them for trying to stay ahead of "Friedman's Flat World."

Safelite Truck Image
Safe & Secure
In today's world, security is of the utmost importance. That is why we use the industry's most extensive background checks, driving record checks and ongoing drug-screening on all new associates.
Technicians & Materials You Can Trust
Certified technicians complete extensive training that meets or exceeds industry standards, and they use quality materials to ensure safety and performance.
As an additional safety measure, the technician will conduct a vehicle inspection prior to starting service.

P.S. you can find them on Facebook as well.

Is technology the new fall accessory?

As I sat in church today texting my vote for next week's song choice, I came to the realization that technology has crept into every aspect of my daily life.  And then later in the afternoon, I came across a picture from NY Fashion week of a model carrying a "digital clutch"...a Hewlett Packard netbook displaying a designer's artwork.  But, it is more than that.  Big retailers are rearranging old marketing techniques to fit in to today's digital world.  Dillard's now places advertisments in magazines centered on a digital shopping experience.  If you like the dress in the ad, no worries just text your size and credit card number and low and behold your new dress will be shipped right to you.  But then I got to thinking about it even more.  Are retailers making a wise decision?  Isn't the goal to get me into the store so I make some impulsive purchases?  I love the ease of this new "shopping experience," but I can't help but think it is a double-edged sword.  Even though online shopping is convient it is also cluttered with mass amounts of digital messages to sort through.  Now...if the netbook only had a compartment for my lipstick.

Image: A model on a runway